Punishment
by ShadowPalace
Summary: Luke's punishment is the Underworld, Bianca's is having to let go. Slight Luke/Bianca


**A/N: For the sake of the story, Luke has to wait ten years in the underworld before he can try for re-birth like he says he will in the Last Olympian. **

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Luke looked at what he was going to have to learn to call sky. It was clouded and dark, and far from what he was used to. It only reminded him of how he stuck, stuck in the underworld. _Dead_. All liberties gone, stripped of anything he had going for him, a life, and a family, gone within seconds.

At least Hades took some mercy on him, and let him remain in Elysium while he waited out his ten years of punishment. He could even honestly say that he recognized some of the faces down in Elysium; some he _killed_.

While reminiscing about the days of his youth, when it was just he, Thalia, and Annabeth managed to put him in a decent mood, thinking about the final part of his life always put him off. It was the result of a terrible fate and bad decisions that were out of his control.

It was hard to tell the difference in time in the Underworld, but he couldn't have been there for longer than a month. Although it felt like years, it was probably because he was not only bored but _alone _as well_._

It wasn't even quiet; it was surprisingly loud. Which prevented any amount of serious thought. To him, this was about as bad as it gets. He guessed he deserved it to a degree, but that didn't make it any better.

"So you're him." Some said from behind him. He turned and faced a beautiful black-hair pale skinned girl. She had silky looking black hair and a ghostly yet serene look about her. Like she was _glad_ to be in the very same place he dreaded.

"I'm who?" Luke asked, staring into the girl's black eyes. She looked oddly familiar; like she resembled someone he'd met before. She looked distant, like she kept herself hidden behind a wall of ghosts, that if you pushed past them all, you'd find the girl inside.

"Luke, correct?" She asked, supplying a small smile, "I've heard about you before." Ever since she found out about his death, she was always curious to meet him. See who caused her brother and Percy all this trouble, years of planning and worrying.

"From who?" He asked. He was surprised at how fast word of his death must have traveled. That a girl who couldn't be older than fourteen knew of his death, indicating that she probably knew the horrors that he caused.

"My father." She said, "And Nico to come to think of it." She wondered what he must have thought of her, just waltzing up to him. While the underworld felt like her home, she knew nobody else thought of it like that.

"You're…" Luke said, "Nico's dead sister." He couldn't believe that she was standing before him, that this was _she_. Sure, he'd heard about her from various spies and sources, but never expected to meet her.

"The preferred term is Bianca." Bianca said, placing a forced smile of comfort on her face. She could tell that he didn't like the underworld. In the gasps in the conversation, he'd look around his surroundings with distaste. Ever since he found out who she was, he seemed to look at her differently, like she was a reflection of what he disliked most.

"You don't want to be here." She stated after their conversation came to a dead end, like just about everything else in the Underworld.

"What gave it away so easily?" Luke said. She couldn't tell if he was being sincere or he said it out of sarcasm.

"You look around here like you'd rather be anywhere else. And you look at me like I'm this place's spinning image." Bianca replied, looking down in disgrace.

"I…I didn't mean it like that." Luke apologized, but it still didn't feel like enough.

"It's okay. Nobody thinks of the underworld is there home besides me, let alone likes it." Bianca couldn't help but feel sad about it. The dead were something that most people wanted to forget, put behind them, and move on. Nobody wanted to think about sorrow and hurt, they wanted to look towards the light, the sky, and a greater life. While some would call her views pessimistic, she thought of herself as a realist. Newly born are welcomed, the living is remembered, and the dead are forgotten.

Luke didn't quite know what to say to that. He hated to admit she was correct about such a dark thought, but it didn't seem to right to lie to her. The least he could do for her was tell her the truth.

"That may be, but at least you're at home." He said, releasing a small smile he didn't know he had in him. This was the first time since he entered the underworld that he had felt good, like he was _worth_ something.

"I suppose." She agreed. If the Underworld became everyone's home, she couldn't quite call it _hers_ anymore. While it may not have been the most hospitable place, what she liked about it best was the ability to call it home, to call it _hers_.

From there on forth, she'd see Luke every so often. They'd stop and chat, and soon they became friends. Two black balls in a sea of white, while their views opposed one another's, they found themselves agreeing on the strangest of things. She found herself enjoying his company and began to seek it more often.

She hated the thought that he in a few years time, he was going to be gone. That he was going to try for re-birth, something _he _thought was better. She was going to be alone again, and never see him again. This was the end of the road, and she had to enjoy it while it lasted. This was her punishment, to have to know that _he _was going to be leaving her. While his was staying here, her's was far worse, because she was going to have to live with it forever.

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**A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Please review, it would mean a lot if you did! **


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